Review Detail

A Cruel and Fated Light is a lengthy book that takes our characters from book one and gives them time to develop. Arlo is tutored by Luck on how to use her magical die to know how to become the Hollow star. Her relationship with Nausicaä also fully develops into an open relationship and the realization of her sexual preferences.
Prince Vehan and Aurelian finally stop pining for each other and make moves to live for now. Aurelian frustrated me so much with how little he revealed about his knowledge of Queen Riadne’s cruelties. She blatantly tells him he will be a sacrifice in which to break Vehan and at no time when they were airing their feelings did Aurelian reveal this. Just Why?
We learn so much about Celadon’s abilities and his heritage. He is an extremely likable character. I appreciated the addition of his perspective as a narrator. He knows enough to be suspicious of Riadne’s intentions so I also find it incredibly frustrating that he didn’t reveal more to Arlo and friends or push his way more with Riadne. It seems like every time the plot was going to have a confrontation it just backed off and did not.
We meet Theo who has secrets. We know a little about his secrets, but that aspect of the plot also doesn’t develop and seems to go anywhere. If his character and secret society become more important in future books, I will withhold judgment now about why it was introduced and then left stagnant in this book.
Riadne’s behavior is not excusable but the flashbacks throughout do help establish how we got to the big finale action scene in the end. We also learn of formidable secret powers that she never let anyone know she has, which makes the ending more believable.
Overall, I struggled a bit with this book. I loved the action and banter between characters in the first book and felt like the sequel filled in the backstory and made the world robust but too much of the time, very little was happening to advance the plot. I feel like the characters all have enough full-bodied development to sustain many books and that ending seems like there will be plenty of action so I will give it a try for another book.